Friday's theme puzzle reads:
NB - 14 clues lack numbering for reasons to emerge. All clues include wordplay and definition.
Well that's not scary at all, unless some of these follow over into other grid spaces? No, good, thanks. They are all people who use their first initials and surname. I was lucky to get 1A first and then a quick peek in Twitter to confirm this message from DA "
Today's DA may cause you grief - but only initially." That was a relief to get the theme so quick. Only trouble now would be if someone used three initials (there are none, thanks) or if they are people I've never ever heard of - there's plenty. Oh, and a quick look at the down clues shows a quadruplet of ellipses clues.
In the end I had eight unsolved which isn't so bad. Here's the pic (ignore the pizza stain):
1A -
He scored jobs - watch mayhem when two quit
"He scored," is our definition and "
jobs watch mayhem" is fodder and anagrind but there are too many letters, so "when TWO
quit" means remove the letters of TWO from the fodder which leaves JBSACH and then mix that (although it was now quite obvious) to find J.S. BACH. "Scored" referring to musical scores.
4A -
Paradoxically, he drew wild cheers accompanying host
"Paradoxically, he drew," and "wild cheers" is anagrind and fodder which follows an abbreviation for "host" = MC (Master of Ceremonies) to make
M.C. ESCHER.
10A -
Lords' favourite horse-race attracts narrow backing
"Lords' favourite" is our definition and this was a google job for me once I figured out it wasn't someone from the House of Lords we wanted but the cricket match. We want a famous cricketer. I had cross letters and found W.G. GRACE. How we parse this clue I still can't see. ** @Patrickavenell tells me "
Horse race (GG race) with W (Narrow backing) for WG Grace..." and on the
horse = GG front I found a link that explains why.
11A -
Cain's initial murder is created by otherworldly creator?
"Otherworldly creator," is our definition and "Cain's initial" = C, "murder" = SLEW (should be murdered?) then the IS from the clue perhaps? I'm not sure of "created by" unless it's part of the definition but our answer is: C.S. LEWIS.
12A -
Brief, divine fling (5)
"Fling" is our definition and I thought for a long while this was a double definition and I was thinking prayers and "aves" but it's a regular cryptic clue where "
brief divine" means to shorten a synonym for "divine" = HEAVENLY and remove letters until we get a synonym for "fling" = HEAVE.
13A -
Painting ballet involving squares both naked (9)
"Painting," is our definition and once we read the clue we see we have two instructions here: that "BALLET" will be "
involving", or containing as it's a container signpost, "SQUARES" but not so hasty as those words first need to be "both naked" or lose their first and last letters leaving ALLE and QUARE which gives us :
A(QUARE)LLE. A new word for me!
14A -
He offers lots for model straddling retro Holden
"He offers lots," is our definition and I had the cross letters but I was stuck thinking about auction houses and not estate agents which are L. J. HOOKER. Worse is I have no idea about classic "Holdens" and is "model" supposed to be a LOOKER? That leaves "
retro Holden" =
HJ reversed to JH. I wouldn't have solved that without the solution, which gives me pouts.
15A -
That's chasing untouchable monster? (6)
"Monster," is our definition and "that's" = that is = IE which will "chase" or come behind an "
untouchable" = Eliot NESS to make NESSIE.
18A -
A prayer for scooter over the airwaves (6)
"A prayer," is our definition and I was so close! I had an idea it could be "Vespa" for "scooter " but didn't know how to make it work. "Over the airwaves" is a homophone signpost so it was a homophone of "Vespa" that means "prayer" = VESPER. Sadly that word didn't come up in my synonyms searches or I'd have had this one.
20A -
They're identical to workers! (8)
An exclamation point means shenanigans are afoot. "Workers" usually means bees or ants and here it's ANTS but how does "they're identical" fit? Lost on me until this morning's solution. The answer is PEASANTS. That means "they're identical" means PEAS? As in "Peas in a pod?" I thought that meant of like mind or close friends, not looking the same. Although technically true, most peas in a pod look alike.
23A -
Surfer possibly leaving this clash where a guilty hand may be caught? (6,3)
"Where a guilty hand may be caught," is our definition and I solved this straight away from the definition to get COOKIE JAR. Hard part was reverse solving. I got it from googling "surfer Cook" and found a surfer whose surname was Cook even though it was tenuous and his bio didn't even have a picture, "possibly" could be IE and to "clash" with someone is to JAR with them. Mort offered "
I think that the first word of 23A relates to what a web-surfer leaves in his or her PC." but in that sense, we the "surfers" don't leave "cookies" we receive them from sites. Those sites give us, the surfers, cookies, not us give them cookies. I had to endure a lecture on cookies to understand this by my IT husband - thanks DA!*
25A -
Buzz at birth deserved wine bottles (5)
I was totally stumped on this from all angles until as I was typing my pleas for help I saw it all. Weird how that happens just after confession of hopelessness. "Buzz at birth" is our definition and it's not a sound but a person, Buzz Aldrin. "deserved, wine bottles" means use the letter D from deserved (I don't know why) but the word WINE will "
bottle" or hold the D...and then get mixed up a bit? Buzz Aldrin's birth name is EDWIN. I'm still sketchy on the details but this was out of my skill. I've made a note about Aldrin's name though because I'm sure I've encountered this before. @Patrickavenell tells me it's a hidden word clue, so "bottled" must be the signpost for that and yes there inside "deserv
ED WINe" is the answer. Blind solver is blind.
26A - A vacuous beef levelled against brilliant Yankee memoirist
"Memoirist," is our definition and I got this by "A vacuous beef" where "vacuous" means air-headed or empty to meen to remove the middle letters from BeeF to make: A B F, I don't know what "levelled against" is about but I thought "brilliant" was ACE and "Yankee" = Y to make
A.B. FACEY.
27A -
Question our money secured by poet
"Poet," is our definition and "question" = WHEN, "our money" = AUD which is secured to make WH(AUD)EN for
W. H. AUDEN. I didn't get this until after I'd typed up a long soppy beg for help.
29A - Henry VIII's time to fix road? True (5,3)
"Henry VIII's time," is hat we want and "
fix road true" is anagrind and fodder to make TUDOR ERA.
30A -
Crooner lad poorly covering ruler's single
So damned tricky!! "Crooner," is what we want and even though I know "lad" was part of the wordplay I was looking for a male singer. We want a crooning woman."lad poorly" is fodder and anagrind that is "
covering ruler's single" which was a very confusing instruction to make KING -I for KNG but I didn't understand until a hint from DAT HandM "
Cc think Canada" did help me, many hours later to make K(LDA)NG it's K.D. LANG.
1D -
Jack skimmed novel by Purim observer (3)
"Purim observer," is our definition and
I got the answer by googling that phrase. I think it's solved by "Jack" = J and "skimmed novel" means to delete letters from a synonym of "novel" = NEW -N = EW to make JEW.
2D -
Laundry load frazzled WAG feeding party (3,4)
"Laundry load," is our definition and this is Aussie slang I've discovered. "
Frazzled WAG" is anagrind and fodder which is "
feeding party" = BASH which is "fed" or holding within itself the WAG to make BA(G WA)SH. On googling that I couldn't get a definition for "
bag wash" as two words, only as
one word. That's kind of odd, don't you think? Stop correcting me google - I know what I typed! (Of course I have no idea if your screen will show the same search results I got)
3D -
Escort Latin revolutionary sheltering a Latin dictator (9)
"Escort," is our definition and "Latin revolutionary" = CHE as it usually does and he's "
sheltering A Latin dictator" where "
sheltering" is a container signpost and the dictator is A PERON we get
CH(A PERON)E. I have no idea why I had an S in the last square and I kept asking myself who CHAS was. Derpy-der.
5D -
Wasted plant? (6)
I got this with cross letters but I think it's a double definition: CACTUS where the "wasted" part is Aussie slang for broken or useless. Maybe?
6D -
Sort of panel show on late, after rerun starts (5)
"Sort of panel," is our definition and the word "starts" is our beginning/end signpost and if look again at "
Show On Late After Rerun" we see SOLAR. Lovely surface, it was well hidden as this goober needed all the cross letters before the lightbulb moment.
7D -
Oddly huge flows he wrote...
The quadruplet ellipses - I'm sure I'm sledghammering that grammar-wise. First up holds the definition for all four "he wrote" where the rest have wordplay only. "
oddly Hu
Ge" = HG and "flows" = WELLS if we think of tears welling up to make H.G. WELLS.
8D -
...hands-on, roughly 7 tons...
"Hands" = R. L. for the right and left hands, "
roughly seven tons" where we spell out the number seven to get our fodder to the right word-count, is anagrind and fodder to make STEVENSON for R.L. STEVENSON. Edinburgh's favourite.
9D - .
..disturbing the base...
This is anagrind and fodder to make:
H.E. BATES.
12D - .
..sauce with saucy skills?
And here's my favourite clue where "sauce" = H.P. and "saucy skills" = LOVECRAFT.
16D -
Illustrator arranged what quiet cover-up?
"Illustrator," is who we need here and I don't know what's going on here. I think "cover up" = DRAPE put in the grid from bottom to top, but "arranged what quiet" is confusing me as I can't see fodder to be mixed. I'm used to "quiet" = P so does the P belong to that instead? Answers is E.H. SHEPARD. **@Patrickavenell tells me "
DRAPE is right, quiet is SH and what gives us EH as in eh?"
17D -
1-down's stag drinks? (7)
"1-down" is the definition which was JEW. I tripped about this clue trying to think of bachelor party drinks, Jewish wines, species of deer - anything. Couldn't suss it at all. Finally with cross letters I put in HEBREWS which I guess is like He-man beer?
19D -
Sent up pampering horntail migrating (7)
"Sent up," is our definition and I don't know how we get this. I'd thought "hor
Ntail" = N was moving within the answer but it's not. It's not even in the answer SPOOFED. I don't know what "pampering" or "horntail" has to do here or why it's "migrating." sorry! **@Patrickavenell tells me "
SPOOFED is SPOONFED with the horn's tail migrating..."
21D -
Fairly close to binding extra mag (3,4)
"Mag," is our definition and I think it's "
fairly close" = NEAR -R with "fairly" being a deletion signpost, that is "
binding" or containing "extra" = WIDE to make NE(W IDE)A. Yes? No? I don't think "extra" is a good synonym for wide. I don't read glossies so I was at a disadvantage. They're full of so much crap. **@Patrickavenell tells me "
Re NEW IDEA, in cricket, a ball bowled too far way from the batsman is a wide and one extra is scored." Cricket stings again.
22D -
A bird lands on generous-hearted thinker
"Thinker," is who we want this time and "A bird" = A JAY and "ger
ERous-
hearted" = ER to make A.J. AYER.
24D -
Suffer hotdog? (5)
Double definition: INCUR. Hot = In, dog = cur. Does incur always have a negative connotation to make "suffer" a good synonym? Could one incur a lottery win? Incur straight A's? Incur a cavity free dentist's visit?
28D -
Ride horse? (3)
Double definition: NAG. Don't ride my ass if you don't like my answers! (ride my horse doesn't have the same zing, does it)
There we are, finished! Probably the kindest theme ever. Plenty of gaps to help fill in and if you have better or alternate solutions, please share in the comments.
Enjoy your weekend! This post started during a thunder and lightning storm but has finished in soggy sunshine so I'm going to head out and stomp in a few puddles.
*That's a provocation to see if my husband has been reading my blog. He'll never resist being indignant over those comments. He's fun to wind up.
